Ofcom probes BBC over anti-Semitic attack report

THE media regulator has launched a probe into BBC reporting of an anti-Semitic attack as Jewish groups reacted furiously to a ‘whitewash non-apology’ by the corporation.

Last night the BBC said sorry after its Executive Complaints Unit partially upheld complaints about the accuracy and impartiality of coverage of abuse suffered by young Jewish people on a bus.

However, the ECU did not agree that the coverage amounted to victim-blaming and it defended the use of ‘alleged’ to describe the abuse as necessary for legal reasons. Shortly after the ECU released its ruling, watchdog Ofcom announced it was investigating as the matter ‘raises issues under our due accuracy rules’.

The incident last November saw about 40 young Jewish people on the bus in London’s Oxford Street subjected to an anti-Semitic attack. A group of men made obscene gestures, swore and threw a shopping basket at them.

Jewish groups, who have been at loggerheads with the BBC over the coverage – which suggested there had been an anti-Muslim ‘slur’ from inside the bus – reacted with anger to the ECU ruling.

There has been a dispute between the groups and the BBC about whether an offensive term had been used or whether it was actually a Hebrew phrase meaning ‘Call someone – it’s urgent’.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was ‘dismayed’ the corporation ‘continues to justify certain erroneous editorial decisions that continue to cloud the issue’. The Campaign Against Antisemitism branded the BBC’s ruling a ‘whitewash non-apology’ which stood by its ‘spurious reporting of an anti-Muslim slur’. It said the corporation had dismissed ‘the monumental offence generated by its coverage’.

It is understood that Ofcom is concerned not just about the reports themselves, but the corporation’s findings.

Last night the BBC apologised and said it had now amended a story on its website from December and issued a clarification of a TV report screened the same day. An Ofcom spokesman said: ‘We have reviewed the BBC’s final response to complaints about this news programme.

‘We consider it raises issues under our due accuracy rules and have launched an investigation.’

Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, welcomed Ofcom’s investigation. She added: ‘We trust that justice will prevail.’

‘Whitewash non-apology’